About Mawlamyine

Highlights

Mawlamyine Gallery

Colonial City With A River View

Beyond Kyaikhtiyo is Mawlamyine, the third largest city in Myanmar and the capital of Mon State.

Beyond Kyaikhtiyo is Mawlamyine, the third largest city in Myanmar and the capital of Mon State. Once a busy seaport known as Moulmein, it is now a pleasantly quiet town with tree-shaded streets harbouring some of the most elegant examples of colonial architecture in Myanmar. Most strikingly, near the Thanlwin River waterfront are several brilliantly coloured mosques built decades ago for the many Indians who came to the region to work for the British, while a few blocks away from the river can be found the first Baptist church to be established in the country.

Overlooking the town is a leafy ridge topped with a line of Buddhist shrines and monasteries. The tallest structure on the hill is the golden Kyaikthanlan Paya, built in the 9th century AD and thought to have provided inspiration for the opening line of British poet Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “Mandalay” – “By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ lazy at the sea”. Indeed, the pagoda provides terrific views of the waterfront and the Thanlwin River as it flows towards the Gulf of Martaban. It is a favourite spot for viewing the sunset and enjoying the evening breeze.

Out on the river itself is Gaungse Kyun (Shampoo Island), named for a ritual dating back hundreds of years to the Ava period when water from a spring on the island was used in a royal hair washing ceremony held once a year. A short boat ride can take visitors to the island, which holds a Buddhist meditation centre as well as Sandawshin Pagoda. Other attractions in Mawlamyine include the busy zeigyo (central market) and the Mon Cultural Museum.

A trip south from Mawlamyine will reveal to travellers a green, hilly landscape with clear mountain streams flowing towards the sea. Less than 30 minutes outside of town, two beautiful limestone outcroppings flank the main road, one topped by a Buddhist shrine named Kyauktalon Taung that requires a steep, 300-foot ascent to reach, and the other crowned by a Hindu temple where hundreds of monkeys roam free. A hundred metres further south is the entrance to the grounds of the 170-metre-long Win Sein Taw Ya reclining Buddha image, one of the biggest such images in the world.

“By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ lazy at the sea”.Rudyard Kipling

The golden Kyaikthanlan Paya, built in the 9th century AD, is thought to have provided inspiration for the opening line of British poet Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “Mandalay”.

Beyond the town of Mudon lies Thanbyuzayat, the western terminus of the infamous 415-kilometre-long Death Railway built by the Japanese between Thailand and Myanmar during World War II at a cost of tens of thousands of lives, including Australian, Dutch, American and British prisoners of war, as well as labourers from Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. The graves of 3771 POWs who perished during construction of the railway are held at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, whose immaculately kept grounds are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A memorial has also been built in town at the site where the railway actually ended, complete with a stretch of train track and one of the original locomotives, which has been donated by Japanese authorities.

Not far from Thanbyuzayat is the wide, mellow Setse Beach on the Gulf of Martaban, and the town of Kyaikkami, where waves crash against the base of the seafront YelePaya, said to harbour a Buddha image that floated on a raft all the way from Sri Lanka.

Watch the sunset glow on the Thanlwin River from the top of a ridge of hills lined with Buddhist monasteries and shrines in Mawlamyine.

Walk along Mawlamyine’s busy waterfront, observing the colourful local activity and the collection of mosques built by immigrants from India during the colonial era.

Take excursions to other sites of interest in the Mawlamyine area, including Thanbyuzayat, and the town of Kyaikkami, once a coastal resort during the colonial era but now famous for its Buddhist shrine complex on the edge of the sea.